Chat asks every person to confirm their date of birth, and it uses age to keep adults and minors from messaging one-on-one. These protections are always on whenever chat is available. There is no separate switch to turn them on or off.
The date-of-birth check
If One Church doesn't already have a birth date on file for someone, they see a Confirm your date of birth prompt before they can use chat.
The date entered is saved to the person's profile — it's the same birthday field used everywhere else in One Church.
People under 13 cannot use chat and see Chat is not available for your account.
Ages 13–17 are treated as minors; 18 and older are treated as adults.
Minors and adults can't share a Private Message
A one-on-one or group Private Message that would put a minor (13–17) and an adult (18+) in the same conversation is not allowed. Trying to start one — or to add someone that would create a mixed-age group — is blocked with the message This conversation is not allowed. Minor-with-minor and adult-with-adult Private Messages are fine.
Tip: This rule applies to Private Messages only. Minors and adults can still take part in the same public or private channel together.
Frozen conversations
If an existing Private Message becomes mixed-age — for example, a teen in the conversation turns 18 — it is automatically frozen and becomes read-only for everyone, with the banner This conversation is closed because a participant is now an adult.
If the membership later stops being mixed-age, the same process reopens the conversation automatically.
Tip: Freezing and reopening run on an overnight process rather than instantly, so a change can take until the next day to take effect.